Sovereign Hill comes to life in one of Australia's biggest 3D mapping projects for Google Earth

Google Earth is a really powerful tool for better understanding our world - both past and present. Google Earth now features historical imagery, allowing you amazing looks back in time, like the German city of Stuttgart, pre- and post-World War II. It can also depict our world today in wonderful, rich detail - like this 3D glimpse of Melbourne via the 3D building layer in Google Earth.

Now ... imagine being able to see in 3D detail what an area looked like more than one hundred years ago? Thanks to a major new 3D building project, you're able to do just that at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, Victoria.

The 60-hectare open-air museum recreates what life was like in Ballarat's gold fields in the 1850s. Set on a former goldmining site, Sovereign Hill has more than 120 buildings - all of which have now been digitally mapped on Google Earth. To give you an idea of scale, nearly 2,000 images were taken to detail the 120 replica buildings on the site, making it one of Australia's biggest 3D digital mapping projects.

You can also take a look at Sovereign Hill in Google Maps using Earth view in your web browser.

The huge project was undertaken almost single-handedly by Tom Delany of 3dskyline.

Google Earth is a wonderful way to take a virtual tour of some of the world's best known tourist attractions and historical icons. Turn on the 3D building layer to get a unique view of our best-loved Aussie destinations including:

• The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge


• The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground)

And international destinations:

• Tower of London


• Statue of Liberty


• Leaning Tower of Pisa

Posted by Andrew Foster, product manager